


Vicissitude

by edelscribe



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Canon Compliant, Hapsburg Austria, Historical Hetalia, Historical Inaccuracy, Historical References, M/M, Minor Austria/Spain (Hetalia), The 30 Years War, The Rise of Prussia, The Treaty of Westphalia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 02:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16672855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edelscribe/pseuds/edelscribe
Summary: A series of conversations between the two nations contemplating foreign relations in Europe. Tags liable to change.





	Vicissitude

**Author's Note:**

> Mainly an excuse for me to write inordinate amounts of dialogue and revise my Louis XIV history course.

The Treaty of Westphalia, 1648, often considered the beginning of the end for the Austrian Hapsburgs, and the rise of Prussia in Central Europe. 

“Things are changing.”  
“What an astute observation.”  
“Don’t mock me, I’m trying to be serious. I don’t think I’m ready for this sort of thing.”  
“If I could do it, you can too.”  
“Perhaps. But we aren’t the same person.”  
“Perhaps.”

Roderich was quiet. Not in the sense a human could be quiet, with their heavy breathing and their fidgeting and the constant whirring of their busy little minds, but quiet as only one of their kind could be. Gilbert hated it when Roderich did that; stopped breathing or moving or thinking or anything that he should be doing. It was unsettling- so he told him as much.

“I didn’t trek halfway across Germany to watch you shut off.” 

Roderich looked up at this, and obligingly took a breath if only to appease the other nation, though it sounded more like a sigh of frustration.

“You were the one that asked me here.”

This at least seemed to get a reaction, “I didn’t ask you anywhere.”

“And yet I came.”

“And yet you came.”

Silence again, but proper silence, something you could dig your teeth into. Comfortable and filled with the not-sounds of existing. 

“You’re worrying about him.” Gilbert said eventually, when Roderich didn’t continue. 

Roderich drummed his fingers on his knee, looking at Gilbert thoughtfully, “Spain can look after himself. He has the Netherlands. They’ll have Dunkirk within months,” he paused for thought, “and France’s social and economic state is less than favourable.”

“He beat you.”

“Chance.”

“Now, now, that Mazarin certainly has some skill.” Gilbert countered, “don’t undermine him simply because your pride is too wounded to admit it.”

Roderich looked mildly indignant. At last. “Skill? He fights with words and money. If he were a soldier, he’d be a musketeer.”

“And you a pike-man?”

“The odds weren’t favourable. You cannot talk, you were on his side.” 

“I still am. Hegemony, you recall?”

“That makes it worse.”

“Perhaps.”

It would be so much easier to just grab Roderich and shove him around, wrestle in the grass and make the Austrian forget about the responsibilities of changing political powers and representing a nation with as much influence as Austria. But Roderich is weakened- not weak, by any means, just weakened. It wouldn’t be a fair fight, and that’s the whole point of their relationship. This is why Gilbert gets some joy from this treaty- well, other than the lands he has gained- because it brings Roderich down a notch until they’re almost eye-to-eye. 

This time Roderich is the one to speak up, “What will you do with the Bishoprics?”

Gilbert seemed to find something about this rather funny, and in his laughter was quite happy to let his head drop into Roderich’s lap, “Whatever I damn well like,” he chuckled, pawing at the fabric of Roderich’s shirt to gain his attention, exposed by the coat which the man sat upon, “you think me a fool, but even I know better than to tell you that.”

Roderich huffed, smacking the side of Gilbert’s head chidingly, “World domination?”

“I’ll let France have a crack at it first, of course, but then I shall simply invade him and take it for myself. I’ll make you one of my states and finally have a piece of the Rhine too. You’ll curse the day you ever heard the name Brandenburg-Prussia.”

“Already do.”

“Says the man stroking my hair like I’m some sort of oversized dog.”

Roderich looked mildly surprised to find that the hand that had previously been used to attack Gilbert’s poor cheek was now carding the soft curls at the base of his companion’s neck, “Well, you do smell like one.”

“I’ll have you know I bathed yesterday.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed,” replied Roderich, a teasing tone creeping into his voice as he stilled his hand in Gilbert’s hair, “but either way, you’ll need a little more than a few Bishoprics to conquer Central Europe.”

“Don’t you worry yourself, I have a few aces up my sleeves.”

“That’s exactly what worries me.”

Gilbert shifted himself onto his back and offered his companion a grin, “Then I’m on the right track.”

“Hardly. I don’t have much to fear from a little German Prince, a Lutheran no less.”

“I’d like to think this war has established the opposite of that,” Gilbert replied, jabbing Roderich in the stomach with a bony finger, “didn’t you just surrender to a group of heretic German Princes?”

“I surrendered to France, a decent Catholic state, and perhaps Sweden if you’re determined to point out my flaws. Speaking of-“

“Sweden. I know. I don’t particularly enjoy having him so nearby these days, but a useful ally in my world domination, perhaps? It’s you who should be worried.”

Roderich bristled a little with indignation, “I am nothing of the sort. Fretting is pointless.”

“Didn’t you just say-?”

“Antonio is different.”

Gilbert sighed audibly and shut his eyes, shaking his head. Whatever opinions he had surrounding the nature of the relationship between Austria and Spain, much less Roderich and Antonio, he kept it to himself. His place was right here, thank you very much, in Roderich’s lap, receiving some fleeting affection. 

It was Roderich who spoke up at length, leaning back on his hands in the grass and allowing his stiff waistcoat to slip from a shoulder where he had unbuttoned it, “I don’t think I’ll be particularly amicable next time we meet.” He admitted, and if nothing else, it gave Gilbert an insight into what he truly believed about the outcome of the Franco-Spanish War. 

“If Spain wins, the status quo will remain unbroken and the Hapsburgs will rule on.”

“True.”

“But you think not?”

“Trouble is brewing in the West. The emergence of an English Republic and France’s decision to ally with it tells of power shifts.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“No,” said Roderich quietly, “I suppose it didn’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please correct me on any historical inaccuracies as it will help me improve! Feedback is very welcome x


End file.
